Telephone intercept systems, that serve to intercept telephone calls to a subscriber's telephone at such times when the subscriber is not available to answer his incoming calls, are well-known.
The intercept system of the prior art employ an intercept desk or console, staffed by intercept operators and are connected to the main telephone exchange via a number of intercept lines. Each intercept subscriber typically has a dedicated jack at the intercept desk which is identified there as that particular subscriber's jack, so that the intercept operator can answer the call, for example as "Mr. John Doe's telephone", using the proper personal or firm name for the intercepted telephone.
The intercept system of the prior art, however, require quite a substantial amount of hardware in order to perform these functions, consisting of an intercept concentrator at the telephone exchange which has on its input side a number of lines equal to the number of intercepting subscribers being connected to the intercept service, and on the output side a smaller number of lines call "intercept trunks" sufficient to carry the intercept telephone traffic. The concentrator also includes identifying means which identify the intercepted telephone, and transmits that identity to the intercept console via the intercept trunks. At the intercept premises, an intercept distributor is provided which connects the small number of intercept trunks to the larger number jacks.
The intercept systems of the prior art have other drawbacks. The telephone to be intercepted must be wired by movable jumpers at a cross-connect field directly to the intercept concentrator. The wiring and administration of these jumpers require a substantial effort from the telephone exchange maintenance staff.
A more recent technique of the intercept system prior art invovles the use of one of the custom features offered by most telephone companies and widely used by their subscribers called call-forwarding. This is a feature of the main telephone exchange whereby the subscriber's telephone is electronically connected to the intercept desk or console via circuitry located in the computer at the telephone exchange.
A common drawback, in the case of either of these examples of intercept systems of the prior art, is that the subscriber must always remember, at each day's end, to call the intercept service and inform the service personnel to activate the service; and in the morning it is necessary for the subscriber to deactivate the service. This is time consuming, and is sometimes forgotten, leading to loss of calls.